That was a nice, relaxing weekend. Well, sort of. Donette headed up to Lake Tahoe with a big group to see the annual Celebrity Golf Tournament, while I stayed behind this year. Somebody had to watch the dogs, and I drew the short straw. Actually I was a willing volunteer, I just don’t enjoy the tournament that much. It’s hot, expensive, I don’t know many of the “celebrities,” and golf is probably the most boring spectator sport ever created. I always enjoy the activities outside of the tournament, like concerts and nice restaurants, but it didn’t break my heart one bit to stay behind. That said… Whew, those dogs are a handful. Mostly (exclusively) Quinn and his friend Renfield. They are just nonstop. If you don’t see them for about 15 minutes, you would do well to go find out what they are doing. They find trouble in ways I never even thought of. On the upside, Quinny usually sleeps for about 2 days straight after Renfield leaves, so I’ve got that to look forward to.

My big excitement for the weekend was firing up the smoker and putting on some ribs. With all my recent forays up to Ring of Fire I’ve gotten a little interested in que’ing at home again. I had fun cooking the brisket last weekend, but it’s a little time consuming, not to mention expensive. Besides chicken, I figured ribs were about the easiest and most moderately priced thing to cook. My big plan went just a bit askew when I got to the butcher shop and spare ribs were $8 per pound. Eight dollars!?!?! That’s just crazy. Granted, they looked fantastic, but so did the baby backs next to them for $5.50. I like spare ribs better, but I guess not that much better because I quickly decided on the cheaper option. My excitement for the day was to cook two slabs. Identical dry rub, but wrap one slab in butcher paper about 1/2-way through the cook. Yep, doesn’t take much to excite me. Well, it was fun, so whatever. I really didn’t notice any difference between the two slabs though. I expected the wrapped ones to be more tender, but they weren’t that I could tell. The unwrapped ones were quite a bit darker, but it’s not like I was turning them in at a competition so who cares. They were both pretty darn good. I’m ready to start tweaking the recipe a bit and try again, but first I have an entire fridge full of leftover ribs to eat.